A Missionary's Work: When You Lose It, You Love It

Hey guys!

This week has been interesting, progressive, and full! To start, Philippines has made the original air gun into a super steroid version. It includes perfume, metal/pvc pipe, a bottle, lighter, and a marble. The thing is freakin' awesome and could easily make a hole in a person (so cool, I got to hold it!).

Also, we got some free sugar cane that just makes other sugars look like garbage, soo good (I'll run it over in a year 😉). I also got to meet a kid from the country Jordan who speaks English and a little bit of Tagalog.

Then I goat wrestled... Ya, he got the win this time but next time, I got it, ha!

It's really great here and I love these people sooo much. It's just every time I get to talk to someone about Christ and they want to learn more, then after some time I get to see them change their life around. They end up with hope, love, faith, patience, and more, where there was none before... that's truly amazing.

This week I really realized that we don't really understand the importance of something unless it's close to being lost or you really do lose it. Because of some situations here, we might have to move to another area. I am now constantly thinking of these people and how they have changed and grown so much, then we might have to leave so they would potentially have to wait until the area got missionaries again... and there is no telling when that could be. They are so close to making a beautiful promise to God through baptism, to follow him and his Son the best they can. An ordinance essential for all people. They will be starting a new slate, clean from all sin and ready to start the path toward God. I also know God has a plan for them and all of us so I'm not too worried. I really do know that God loves us and knows us each individually and that in this life's race, Jesus isn't waiting at the end but at our side with us. When we fall or feel we can't do something, he's there to help us up, and for us to lean on. Because of this, even the things that we lose and care about so much will be okay as we will be okay too. I love you all soooo much and hope you remember who's at your side every step, crawl, sprint of the way. And that if we acknowledge his presence, we will be okay with the things that are lost, because we know that he's taking care of them.

Elder Peterson
-I have to fix my camera, the files won't come up, that's okay, I'm a professional 😉

A Missionary's Work: Seek First

07/17/2017

It got deleted again, sorry!!!
Just remember in seeking God, we pray, read, go to church and follow his commandments.

Love ya
Elder Peterson

A Missionary's Work: What We Feel Has Been Felt

7/3/2017

Sunshine's Note: Somehow I missed this post last week so it's out of order. Sorry.

Hey all the party people!

This week has been great with lots of teaching and not much more, ha. It's great, just nothing crazy has happened but the regular crazy... like 8 year olds smoking, and 5 year olds driving motor cycles, and eating duck. It's all cool! But because of lack of time, I'll just go to the things I've been learning this week.

We have an investigator who we found out is getting bullied and is depressed. We are trying to help her the best we can. With this in mind, I read 2 Nephi 9:20-22. It's about Jesus' atonement. Every person that falls into depression needs to know they're not alone because He has felt all our pains, sins, hardships, all of it. When we realize that we are not alone, there is a strength given and taken. Because Jesus Christ suffered, died and lived again for us, we will never walk alone, or when we fall, we can get help up. Please remember we never were, are, or will be alone because of what he has done for us.

Love you guys, see ya next time!

Elder Peterson

A Missionary's Work: Truth Hurts, But Builds More

7/10/2017

Hey everybody! How's it going on the North and to the left-ish side of the world? Ha. It's going great here. We're eating well and actually, like every other night, we invite this cool member to come and cook with us. He's pretty good and it's never boring for sure. We always end up cooking outside and it's a blast.

It's been so fast...The other day I was transferred to Paco Roman, now I'm going on 4 months here. Wow, when old people say time flies, I can testify they are way right, haha (no offense to old people 😉).Life just seems sweeter when you take in the memories and moments. Especially the people you're around. These people here are great and I am always soo much more happy when I'm with them, especially teaching them in their homes with their families.  Besides, tasting some great fried bugs (like grasshoppers) and finding some cool back woods houses... it's been a great week.

Now something that I have been working on, is learning from the truth. There are a lot of ways to learn from truth, but this kind is different. Let me explain in an example. My companion and I had a little bit of a hard time for a small period of time where he sort-of blew up about some things I was doing that he didn't like. I thought of what he said and instead of being mad and trying to shove his weaknesses in his face like I used to do, I pondered on what he said. I thought about, if we want to become better children of God, we need to be willing to accept all and be willing to work on it. I realized what he had said was true and decided to work on it. It's not always easy to take the truth, especially when it really shows your weaknesses, but if you have the mind-set of becoming the person that God sees you being able to become, you will take the truth and correction and become a little better. My invitation to you all is to don't immediately be offended from some kind of correction or truth but ponder it and work on your divine potential. Love you all... seeya in another week!

p.s. We got to see how they cook Dog. Ya that smoke smelled...

Elder Peterson
Pics of course!

A Missionary's Work: Time And Lovin' It Up

6/26/2017

Hey guys! How's it going over there in the NICE warm weather? (Here it's mean, hot, humid weather, ha.) Ya, earlier today we had a zone activity which was completely outside. I completely understand now why Filipinos love the shade and layer up in the summer (always longs sleeves in the summer), because I turned from really tan like toast to red like an apple, haha! You should see the really white Americans there ha!

It's been a good hardworking week. Our work is, as expected, in rain or blistering shine 😉 . We had some great hard rain and winds the other day that was a great cool-off, though it's sort of hard to share 2 umbrellas to 3 people (we love our worker brother Joshua). We got to help a member move in to the new house they built; like the refrigerator, cabinets, and a bamboo bed frame (Filipinos prove that you can build anything out of bamboo and welded metal). It's been great. The members have been feeding us, which is great because we walk a lot, and when we get home for dinner we just end up doing the needed stuff and going to bed.

Anyway, this week I have been learning to use time better and to truly love and cherish it. They always told me time is sooo fast, so love this moment and I always thought, "uh, I can't wait to be 15 so I can drive" or "I can't wait to get to eat anything I want after wrestling season" (and then I eat like one thing I want after season then continue to do the same, ha). Time is that one thing we can't take back and one of the only things we can truly give God. Everything is a gift to us from God, so we should love and cherish them, then give of our time to the one who has given it all to us, even just enough time to give thanks to him. So I have been looking at things a little differently lately, just a lot more filled with gratitude and things become so much more beautiful. Even hard situations. Actually, one time this week, I felt really sorrowful. One of the families here has had some crazy trials and they have endured well and were on steady ground, but all of a sudden, it all fell through. The feelings were almost unbearable, even though it wasn't even my situation. I doubted, and then a couple little tender mercies happened and I started to really appreciate his blessings for us. He give us hard things so we can become more, even who he wants us to become. He give us so much more good than bad. We just always look a the bad instead of the good. Let's take the time to be grateful and use this gift of our time and give some more time to God.

I love you all!!!
Seeya next time!
Elder Peterson
(Sorry but the pics just aren't working today)

A Missionary's Work: Laughing Is A Life Saver

6/12/2017

Hey ya'll,

It's still hot, humid and rainy here, but all sunshiny and what-not inside, ha! Btw, we like to say something is "ghetto" there in the states, right? Well, I am soo certain that Filipinos were the first ones to invent anything "ghetto". I have seen some crazy invention type deals here and am always mind blown. Like how they eat every part of the chicken. They can get the very extent and use of everything here too. For example, cans, you can make a very annoying cannon thing, or a stove or some kind of flower waterer. Anyway, it's great to see these great inventions (Coach D would love to see these inventions I'm sure, ha).

So this week I leaned something great... how to laugh (either a great starting line or a very sad life). For me, I usually get really mad if I get frustrated and I get frustrated if I can't do something. I have always been told, "you can do anything", so when I want to do something, I try my best to do it. So this week, as we were in a lesson with one of our investigators, I was really frustrated. No one would let me speak, I was shushed, and such, anyways I was really frustrated. Then I thought about one of my heroes in life, Grandpa Alvarez. Whenever we would get into fights (my siblings and I), he would just smile and laugh, ya I kinda felt stupid for fighting over a toy or something, but I learned that when we feel pride rising or anger, we can just laugh at it and look at it as it really is. Something like when we get angry at someone we can look at the more important part and instead of being mad, smile an laugh. It definitely makes life a lot less hard, more enjoyable, and the one dude down the hall will look more like a funny guy than an annoying guy. If we want to let go of hard feelings or hard situations, listen to my new motto (it's adapting too) Stay Pogi, smile on and laugh.

Well, love you all sooo very much and will see ya'll next week ;)

p.s. Coach D, ya I did that workout, haha, just throwin' rocks :)
p.p.s. I did try my best and make mexican rice... failure one, next... ;)

Elder Peterson